How I Created a Women Centred Business (And Why It Matters More than Ever)

I built a feminist-first engine for equity, impact, and change. Here’s why that choice matters right now, and what it looks like behind the scenes.

Subscribe to The Truth Bomb Times for the guides, the tools, and the truth bombs you need to create and sustain a workplace that works for women.

About Me

I am the unapologetically fierce, quite sweary, globally sought-after architect of workplace gender equity. I’ve earned a reputation as the go-to strategist for organisations ready to stop talking and start doing workplace gender equity right.

When not dismantling the barriers holding women back, I’m joyfully working with ambitious women to have careers that soar. I do this through my award-winning book The Leadership Compass, the Lead to Soar Network, and my no-bullshit podcast The Fed Up Club.

I do not do band-aids, box-ticking, or anything even vaguely performative. I build women-centred systems that deliver real impact, real outcomes, and real change.

---

When I was compelled to leave my corporate executive career behind, it was because I had a burning need to change all workplaces for women, not just the one that I happened to be leading at the time.

That fire has evolved. In my tenth year running a women-centred, feminist-first business, it’s overdue for me to share what’s made it successful.

Truth Bomb: Generosity is my permanent guiding word, and sharing is caring (and anticapitalist!)

My business delivers:

• Gender equity and DEI strategy that gets systems unstuck

• Leadership development that equips ambitious women to rise and managers to lead inclusively.

I started with paid coaching and mentoring as a side hustle. But it wasn’t scalable, and it wasn’t going to shift the systems holding women back.

So I dug deep, restrategised, and started building a system and my reputation for getting shit done for women at work.

My system is grounded in intentionality; who I work with and why I do the work. Everything, and I mean everything, I deliver is aligned to one goal: closing the leadership gender gap and building workplaces that work for women.

Truth Bomb: You can’t smash the patriarchy if you keep playing by its rules.

What Women-Centred Means in My Business

One of my most important values is ensuring that women are central to everything I do. In my business, this meant operationalising feminist values inside a patriarchal and capitalist system. It means creating a business model that makes money, has an impact, and creates change. And no, I’m not a social enterprise or a charity, despite how often women-led businesses get that assumption dumped on them.

5 Guiding Principles for my feminist first business:

1. I don’t work with everyone. I work with organisations that are demonstrably committed to change.

2. I charge fees that reflect my expertise, the strategic value I deliver, and the fact that my work is business-critical.

3. I create programs that give women access to what they’ve been systemically denied: strategic visibility, high-value leadership capability, and spaces where decisions are made.

4. I use every platform I have to call out the leadership gender gap, the institutional barriers, the virtue signalling and the patriarchal habits that keep women stuck.

5. I back that advocacy with action. Through the Fed Up Club, the Lead to Soar Network, the Advancing Women in Sport research series, and my strategy work inside businesses and boardrooms.

Who I Work With (and Why That Matters)

I work with clients who are ready to confront what’s not working. They are not the organisational leaders who are looking for a quick fix. They understand (because I tell them) that this is a marathon, not a sprint. It is going to require commitment and is not one-and-done.

It is my daily joy (seriously, it is) to work with:

• CEOs who recognise gender equity as a strategic advantage

• HR and DEI leaders who recognise that I am here to help, not accuse or displace.

• Women leaders who are unapologetically ambitious and unwilling to settle for less than their potential

• Organisational leaders who want to learn the 21st Century skills that are no longer nice to have.

Truth Bomb: I do say no to work (even when it hurts.)

That also means walking away from clients who aren’t dinkum because protecting my energy, time, and reputation is a feminist act.

I want us all to reimagine power and leadership through a lens where women are central, not sidelined.

My Business Is My Advocacy

My work is not neutral, neat, or always palatable. I see the best and worst of workplaces. Gender inequity, the leadership gender gap, and the lack of funding, access, and recognition for women’s work are all critical issues that I want to contribute to solving.

That means I am not running a neutral business. I have a well-stated position: I’m running a feminist-first business that challenges power structures, champions women, and builds better systems.

At the same time, I’ve designed a business that lets me act on my values, influence decision-makers, and create spaces where women can lead on their terms.

Back in the day, when I wondered what the hell I was meant to be when I grew up, I wished someone had told me that I didn’t need permission. I needed a purpose.

Fortunately, I provided myself with both.

Want More?

Paid subscribers get access to my exclusive companion post:

“How I Actually Run a Women-Centred Business (That’s Also Fierce, Financially Sound, and Feminist)”

It includes:

• My core business operating principles

• How I price with purpose

• How I say no without guilt

• How I use strategy to stay sustainable

• How I protect joy and momentum in the face of burnout culture

Upgrade for $8/month or $80/year (AUD) and you’ll also get a 3-month guest pass to the Lead to Soar Network

Truth Bomb: Being women-centred isn’t just a philosophy. It’s a strategy. And it works.